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Date Published: 12/12/2022

ARCHIVED - Health experts warn Spain is facing a tripledemic: Covid update Dec 12

ARCHIVED ARTICLE -

Hospitalisations and intensive care admissions have sprung up again this week all across Spain

<span style='color:#780948'>ARCHIVED</span> - Health experts warn Spain is facing a tripledemic: Covid update Dec 12

Former director of WHO Health Action in Crisis Situations, Daniel López Acuña, has this week cautioned that the coronavirus pandemic "has not yet ended in Spain or in the world," warning that as the festive season approaches, the country is in danger of experiencing a “tripledemic” where the combined effects of Covid, flu and respiratory viruses end up saturating our health services.

The warning unfortunately rings true when one looks at the pandemic data: infections have dropped considerably this week, as has the incidence rate, yet hospitals continue to be flooded, with admissions rising more than 8% again this week.

According to the expert, the problem has two main causes: an over-relaxation of restrictions and a slow vaccination rate.

In Spain, only 47% of people over 60 years of age have received a fourth dose while an incredible 15 million still haven’t availed themselves of the third jab.

Coronavirus infections

The Ministry of Health has reported 17,828 new coronavirus cases in its latest update on Friday December 9, which is a considerable increase on the 19,303 registered on the same day the previous week. Of these, 10,415 positives have been diagnosed in people over the age of 60.

In the past two weeks, a total of 19,468 positives have been registered in this age group.

This brings the total number of infections since the beginning of the pandemic to 13,632,635.

Cumulative incidence rate

In a very positive development, the 14-day cumulative incidence rate in people over the age of 60 has dropped another 7 points in the past week to stand at 158.04 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.

The 7-day incidence rate in citizens aged 60 or over has also fallen from 77.09 to 73.98 cases. Crucially, this number is more than half the 14-day figure, which is a positive indication that infections are on the decline in general.

Looking at the incidence by autonomous community, Andalucia continues to have the best figures, standing at 57.77 cases this week (a tiny increase).

The Valencian Community remains below the national average but has experienced a rebound this week, increasing from 143.47 cases per 100,000 to 152.10.

Hospitalisations and fatalities

There are currently 4,167 patients admitted to hospital throughout Spain (compared to 3,856 last Friday) while 243 people are being treated for more serious conditions in intensive care (an increase of 14).

This means that 3.35% of all hospital beds are occupied by Covid patients while the occupancy rate in intensive care is at 2.76%.

However, of the total number, only 45.1% of patients have been admitted to hospital directly as a result of coronavirus; this figure rises to 52.7% in the case of the ICU.

Overall, the number of people hospitalised for Covid in Spain has grown by 8.06% in the last week while intensive care admissions have increased by 6.1%

A further 314 Covid-related fatalities were reported in the update, compared to the 207 deaths registered a week ago.

This brings the overall death toll in Spain since the start of the health crisis to 116,422 people.

Vaccination data

As of December 12, 92.9% of the population over the age of 12 is fully vaccinated against Covid, which means that a total of 39,171,853 people have now received two doses.

In addition, 39,277,377 people (93.1%) have had at least one dose.

Read more: How to book a vaccination appointment to get your Covid jab

Image: Ministerio de Sanidad

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